At what was a final presentation of Pella’s Streetscape master plan, frustrations from the Pella City Council became clear about the direction of downtown upgrades coming in the next four to eight years.
They reviewed the plan at their meeting Tuesday. RDG Planning and Design drafted the document with the guidance of a steering committee representing government, business, and industry, and additional ideas were generated from numerous public input sessions. After the conclusion of the presentation by RDG, several members of council took issue with many of the key points and concepts shown, especially about what results in a reduction of 24 parking spots, and what the impact of spending significant money downtown would have on other needs in the city.
Councilmember Bruce Schiebout called the plan “ordinary” several times, and was concerned with a lack of “outside-the-box” thinking to address problems such as parking and extending sidewalk use.
Councilmembers Tony Bokhoven and Lynn Branderhorst felt that the drafted plan focused too much on the public enhancements, and the negative message the spending potentially sends to other neighborhoods needing infrastructure updates.
Bokhoven was most concerned with parking as well, and said there was too much he disagreed with in the documents to support it. Branderhorst says infrastructure details needed to be shared sooner, as she feels too many residents reaching out to her think the project is only about visual updates.
Mayor Jim Mueller, who served on the steering committee made up of local government, business, and industry leaders that guided the plan’s development, pushed back that the plan shut out public input into needs and wants for the project — as he cited numerous opportunities for citizens and business owners to give feedback over the last six months. Councilmember Larry Peterson mostly offered praise for the process, saying the guide is needed to ensure the upgrades are done in a uniform fashion. Most of the council did agree about some streets not including brick, as was initially outlined in approval of a “back-to-brick” plan in 2017, namely Main and Washington.
Ultimately, the plan — which will serve as guidance for council in implementing the infrastructure and public enhancement project that will cost an estimated $16.6 million over eight years, was passed on a 4-2 margin, with Mark DeJong, Schiebout, Peterson, and Harold Van Stryland voting to support, and Bokhoven and Branderhorst in opposition. Schiebout said at his vote he was in favor only from “fiduciary” responsibility to constituents, as over $70,000 was spent on the development of the guide.
The plan outlines the phasing of the project over the next four years specifically, starting with the renovation of the OostPoort alleyway in 2019. The document does not address restroom facilities in the downtown area, as that has garnered considerable public response and will be addressed at a later time by council separately.
